Exclusively for Book Depository customers. (Some users reported that there is no check, but others reported that the offer does not work.)
New members sign up for an Audible 30-day trial membership at www.audible.com.au. You'll receive 2 membership credits for $0/month during the first 30 days of your membership (the “trial period”) instead of 1 credit. Second credit may be added at any time during first 2 days of trial period.
Plus when you go to quit you may be given another free month / credit to stay, so do that, then quit.
Plus after a few months I was offered $3 for two months (incl 2 more credits) which was good value.
Plus before you quit you can exchange your books if you've already listened to / want to bail on them.
If you want to pay an author you've listened to you can always buy a physical copy and share it round.
Why? They'll get paid royalties through this free trial.
I'm assuming for an exchange that Bezos and co have it all figured out so the author gets docked any prior payment.
Plus…
Don't feel bad book depository will get affiliate money for each signup.
I got it as a slip of paper shoved into a delivery recently, which I thought was kind of odd considering it's advertising a competitor. But they're not doing any work to tie it to an account.
Audible = Amazon
Book Depository = Amazon
Oh wow, somehow I never knew that (the book depository part). Makes sense now.
For anyone looking to make a cheaper a quick hack is to cancel your membership, it will ask you to stay with one credit free or $8 a month for two months. I’m not sure if this still exists but saved a few bucks like this.
I've been offered $4 / month for two months. Haven't accepted as I haven't 'read' the books I got from my first 3 months
Did not work for 2 of my accounts :(
Worked ok without confirmation of the book depository account because it knew I was a Prime member so I was offered the same 2 free credits
Not discounting the possibility but my wife isn't a prime member and it worked fine for her, YMMV.
unethical pro tip - After you are finished with the book, return it no questions asked and use the credit to buy another. In my experience can do this up to 3 times a month before it flags you as too many returns.
FYI, this screws over the author and Amazon has recently changed their processes. It used to be that if it was returned within 365 days of purchase, Amazon would take the royalties back from the author/publisher, which resulted in them losing up to half of their revenue on books because it was so commonly done.
Now if you return it after 7 days (as of Jan 1st) the authors keeps their royalties. So expect that now it hurts Amazon they'll crack down on you a lot faster.
I noticed they also changed it so it removes the book from your library. Used to be once you downloaded it to the device it was there forever, now all returns are removed automatically.
Terms and conditions say "This special offer is exclusive to Book Depository customers" but there is no check. My wife signed up and received the second credit within 5 minutes. Hope this helps someone.